ST. LOUIS - My baby girl is due in mid-August. She will be our first child, and we are insanely excited. I wanted to waste no time introducing BabyGirl to the sights and sounds of a live baseball game - well, the sounds at least - so her mom (Tate) and I took her to Busch Stadium on Sunday afternoon for the Cardinals' game against the Phillies. We were in town for a baby shower the day before.

Secretly, I was hoping something special would happen. I want to be able to tell BabyGirl (we haven't settled on a name yet) about the time we took her to her first baseball game, and this amazing thing happened. I wanted to tell her it was baseball's way of welcoming her to the world. Silly, right? I don't care. I want amazing for her. That will never change.

Through three innings, I thought Cardinals rookie Jack Flaherty just might deliver that amazing. He retired the first nine Phillies he faced with relative ease, striking out four in a row at one point. Could this fresh-faced rookie give BabyGirl a perfect game? A no-hitter, at least? I haven't seen either in person yet. It was only the third inning, but I had hope.

Damn Rhys Hoskins. He ended that hope with a no-doubt home run with one out in the fourth inning. After the hiccup, Flaherty continued to roll through the Phillies, though, and by the time he was done, he had struck out 13 batters in 7 2/3 innings. It was an incredibly impressive performance for just his fourth start of the season and the ninth of his major-league career.

If his career continues this way, I thought, can I make that into "amazing" with a little fatherly embellishment? "See that guy pitching in the All-Star Game, BabyGirl? You were there for his first great big-league performance." Yep, I could make that work.

And then Jordan Hicks happened. Almost immediately, Jack Flaherty became a side note in BabyGirl's first-game adventure.

Hicks took over for Flaherty with two outs in the eighth and got Nick Williams to ground out. He walked Cesar Hernandez to open the ninth, but Hoskins grounded into a nifty 6-4-3 double play. Hicks was launching his sinker toward the plate with the type of speed we've come to expect from the rookie reliever, anywhere from 97 to 102 mph for those first three batters he faced.

Up walked Odubel Herrera, the guy who just happens to lead the NL in batting average. He took the first offering from Hicks, a strike down the middle of the plate. The crowd at Busch Stadium gasped. I looked up at the spot where the pitch speeds are displayed, just above the Big Mac Land area in left field.

104 mph

I let slip a word we hope BabyGirl doesn't use for a long time. I tried to open the camera app on my phone to take a picture of the number, but I was too slow and it disappeared. I opened the MLB At Bat app, to see if that insane number was just a juiced stadium gun or legit. As I saw confirmation of the speed, I looked up to see Hicks throw another pitch that seemed impossibly fast, so fast that catcher Francisco Pena was helpless as the ball zoomed off line and toward the backstop.

After a few stunned moments, I switched from the At Bat app to the camera, but again I was too late. The number, one that was hard to believe, disappeared again.

"This is insanity," I told my girls.

If, somehow, Hicks managed to repeat that velocity a third time, I would be ready. I trained my camera on the MPH display and left it there, even as I watched Hicks wind up and let loose.

104 mph

I got the picture this time. I started to crop the photo a bit closer to post it on Twitter, so everyone everywhere could share in the moment. It felt like the entire stadium was holding its collective breath in anticipation as Hicks went into his motion again.

105 mph

The fans still in the stadium erupted, and I hoped BabyGirl could hear the roar. Herrera, somehow, managed to make contact and foul off the pitch. I took more pictures, cropped the best one and fired off a tweet.

Hicks' next offering bounced well in front of the plate, but at 103 mph. Herrera couldn't resist. He raced to first after the ball bounded past Pena and to the backstop. After Hicks walked Carlos Santana - nothing faster than 101, which is the first time I've ever been disappointed in 101 mph - he got Jorge Alfaro to ground out to end the game on a 99-mph sinker.

With a moment to finally think, I told my girls, "I think we just saw what has to be one of the fastest pitches in the history of baseball."